Page 44 of He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

He pulls a bouquet from the back of the truck, much like the one he brought me at the airport. Bright orange and hot pink daisies, with grass weaved in to look like ribbons. He made that and it’s gorgeous. I can hardly believe this is the Dax I knew.

‘That’s so pretty.’

‘You’re going to swoon every time I do this, aren’t you?’

‘Afraid so,’ I say, lifting a single shoulder. ‘I’d stop it if I could, but… nope, I can’t.’

Dax stops at the front desk, explaining what he’s here for and the receptionist calls the young girl, Hilary, to the office. Moments later, as Dax and I stand in the main hall, a young girl appears at the top of the stairs. She’s got dark brown skin, shoulder-length curly hair, and wide eyes. She approaches hesitantly, so Dax kneels.

‘Are you Hilary?’

She nods excitedly.

‘I heard you won the spelling bee this week. Is that true?’

‘Y-E-S,’ she spells out her answer. How freaking cute is she?

‘Wow.’ Dax chuckles, glancing at me then back to her. ‘Congratulations. You should be proud.’ He hands her the bouquet, and she lets out a little squeal. ‘Your mom told me your favorite colors were pink and orange. I hope I did OK?’

‘I love them!’ she says, taking them from him and staring down at them like I did at the airport. ‘Thank you!’ She runs back up the stairs, a massive grin on her face when she glances back at us.

When Dax turns to me, I’ve got one arm crossed over my chest and one hand over my mouth. He rolls his eyes with a laugh.

‘Thanks, ladies,’ he says to the office crew as we exit the school.

I rub my forearms, hoping to get rid of the sudden surge of goosebumps covering every inch of me.

‘Cold?’ he asks. ‘I brought a hoodie if you want it.’

‘My god,’ I say with a groan. ‘You’re too much. I don’t get how you don’t have women lined up around the block to date you?’

He throws his hands in the air as if he’s got no idea what I’m talking about, which doesn’t help.

‘You were right,’ I say, trying not to make eye contact for fear of my heart jumping right from my chest and sprinting to him. ‘This is fun. Watchingyoudo this is fun.’

‘I’m sure what you did for a living was fun too. I can’t imagine you picking something boring.’

I let out a laugh. ‘I was a waitress. For eight years, I delivered food and drinks to people. Most of the time, without even a thank you. Then I got fired. Nothing fun about that.’

‘You gotfired?’ he asks. ‘For what?’

‘I told a guy to eff off after he grabbed my ass.’ I roll my eyes as I say it and Dax’s grin grows. ‘I’d already asked him not to touch me once, so when he tried it again, my inner Mercy came out, and the words rolled off my tongue way too easily. He had the last word and got me fired while he watched.’

Dax’s laughter stops, and he looks over at me, his face serious. ‘Should have punched the prick.’

‘I considered it. Trust me.’ This time I laugh. ‘This, delivering flowers to people, it’s something else. Pure joy. People are sincerely happy to see you.’

‘Pure joy,’ he repeats. ‘I can’t argue with that.’

We do deliveries for a few more hours before I get a text from Mercy asking me to meet her for a late lunch. Dax drops me off at the restaurant before he heads home, and truthfully, I’m sad to see him go. Because of him, I haven’t thought about Tristan even once today.

* * *

Lunch…

‘Why do you look like you’ve just floated over here on cloud nine?’ Mercy asks as she walks in.

I haven’t been able to quit smiling since I got into Dax’s truck this morning. My cheeks hurt, and my heart has done more than a dozen flips with every delivery we made. I’ve never witnessed someone so perfect for a job. And someone sonotperfect for it – I spent most of the day blinking back tears.

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